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Pressure mounts on French comic as Paris mayor calls for ban

By AFP - Jan 05,2014 - Last updated at Jan 05,2014

PARIS — The mayor of Paris on Sunday joined France’s interior minister in calling for comedian Dieudonne, whose vitriolic brand of humour targeting Jews has caused outrage, to be banned from the stage.

Dieudonne has been part of France’s comedy scene for years, but while he started out with a Jewish comedian in sketches that mocked racism, he gradually veered to the far-right and alienated some fans with anti-Jewish comments — his latest being a joke about gas chambers.

“We must ban the performances [of the comedian],” he said, echoing recent comments made by Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

Dieudonne has been fined several times for defamation, using insulting language, hate speech and racial discrimination, and a provocative arm gesture he makes has been described as an upside down Nazi salute.

Dieudonne argues that the horrors of the Holocaust are given too much focus to the exclusion of other crimes, like slavery and racism, and says his so-called “quenelle” gesture merely represents his anti-establishment views.

The gesture has landed several personalities in hot water, including footballer Nicolas Anelka, who used it to celebrate a goal.

“SOS Racisme”, an organisation that fights racism, announced Sunday it would take to court anyone who spread pictures of or did the “quenelle” in locations such as synagogues or Holocaust memorials “that leave no doubt” as to the anti-semitic nature of the gesture.

Valls, meanwhile, has said he is examining options to ban performances by a man he brands as a “little trader of hate”, outraged by Dieudonne’s latest jibe against Jewish radio presenter Patrick Cohen.

“When I hear Patrick Cohen speak, I tell myself, you know, the gas chambers... A shame,” Dieudonne had said in comments filmed secretly at a show and then aired on French television.

Valls has also asked Dieudonne to pay some 65,000 euros ($88,500) he has run up in fines.

Officials in several cities where Dieudonne is set to perform during a nationwide tour this month have also said they are trying to ban his show.

And veteran Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld have called for a protest on Wednesday at a theatre in the western city of Nantes, where Dieudonne is due to perform.

The controversy comes at a sensitive time for France, where racism has shot to the fore after the country’s black justice minister was the victim of a series of racial jibes — prompting President Francois Hollande to pledge intransigence on racism in his New Year’s address.

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